kiki de monteparnasse. catel & bocquet. (154)

i came across kiki de monteparnasse on amazon and of course the cover inspired my man ray's famous photograph i had to check it out.  i figured a book about the model for man ray had to be interesting.  and it was!

as you have seen in this blog, i fell in love  with the lost generation thanks to woody allen's midnight in paris.  so i was excited to read and learn about kiki.  prior to this i had no knowledge though i had seen her back.

my post on kiki's memoirs discussed the stories i enjoyed from her life so i will share what shocked me and some of my favorite illustrations.

i was shocked by the drug use.  i always think of coke as an 80s thing but it has been around for a while.  i mean i remember how shocked i was when i discovered this lyric in cole porter's i get a kick out of you:

some, they may go for cocaine.

i'm sure that if i took even one sniff

it would bore me terrifically, too.

yet i get a kick out of you.

but was still surprised when i saw it in kiki's life though not completed shocked because she was a party girl as seen in these illustrations:

i was also surprised by how many men offered to pay her for flashing them.  i mean i guess its better than prostitution.  i mean a peek for some money, i can understand why she did it.

of course there was a bunch of nudity and sex.  she did pose nude and have alot of sex with artists.  again i don't blame her if i was in paris during this time i would have been the same way!

of course the book covered her relationship with man ray.  how they created beautiful art together but how their love was also destructive.  it was seen how kiki wanted to be a mother yet man ray didn't want kids, showing a more softer side of kiki.

the book also covered the time in jail

she mentioned in her memoirs.  it also showed her decline.  it was difficult to see her abused by marcel when she seemed to be an nonsense kind of girl

her whole life.  and like every too glam celeb, drugs took a hold of her and ruined her life.   it was also sad to see her life end due to drugs and alcohol.  if kiki was around in the 90s her life story would have made a great vh1 behind the music episode.  kiki had some hard times but she still lead an exciting life and contributed so much to the art community.  

being a graphic novel it was filled with wonderful illustrations.  i really loved the ones of photographs i saw in her memoir:

i especially found the ending illustration beautiful:

i will add that the chronology at the end of the book left me wanting to read more about kiki.   it also got me interested in man ray and i will have to pick up his bio.

kiki de monteparnasse was an interesting read to add to my knowledge of an era i love.

kiki's memoirs. alice prin. (153)

as i was reading the graphic novel, kiki de monteparnasse, i began to wonder where the stories told came from.  so i searched the library catalog and came across kiki's memoirs, written by kiki with an introduction by ernest hemingway!  

when i picked kiki's memoirs up, i was surprised by how thin it was, i wanted all the juicy details from her life and wasn't sure if the memoirs would give them all to me.

the first half of the memoirs are kiki or her actual name alice prin's actual memoirs .  she explained how her grandmother raised her along with her five other cousins, all who were bastards (for lack of a better word).   when she was 12, she moved to paris to be with her mother.  she worked odd jobs and longed for love.  then due to an argument with the baker she worked for kiki ended up with her first art job, posing for a sculptor.  she then began modeling for various artists and even painted her own art.  her biggest contribute to the art world was a result of her she meeting american surrealist man ray.  she became his muse and together they created beautiful art specifically photography.  here are some of my favorites and of course their most famous photograph:

kiki's memoirs were a bit confusing to read, it jumped around and she shared odd details but they were interesting since she was quite the character.  

one interesting story kiki discussed was the time that she was in jail for assaulting an officer but luckily man ray came to help her and she was released.

the later half of the memoirs is an interview from a paris newspaper.  i enjoyed this portion more because kiki was older, 50, and wiser.

there was one story, kiki shared about her grandmother that caused my admiration of  her grandmother for raising the grandchildren.  kiki shared how the neighbors told her to turn to public assistance for helping raising the kids to which she responded "i will raise my bastard, its nobody else's business.  it's the jerks their fathers who should be blamed."  everyone likes to blame the woman for bastard children but people forget that they have fathers too.

i loved how kiki was not ashamed of her bastard status.  she shared how she would run into her half sister and the sister would tell her, "i am going to tell my father" to which kiki responded "i don't give a damn, he's my father too."  

however, kiki's father was horrible, she shared a story of him trying to poison to kill her but her grandmother saved her. being abandoned by both parents caused much pain for kiki, as she sadly shared "no one knows what sorrow fills the heart of a child who doesn't have a father, whose mother is far away and whose only tenderness in life comes from a grandmother."

kiki's childhood was filled with sadness and misery.  she shared words of wisdom as she reflected on her sad memories.  she explained "when you meet an ugly and neglected little girl with her head shaved like an egg, don't laugh:  pitiful hair makes grown-ups loath but little ones cry."  from when her grandfather died, "death among poor people is not a catastrophe as it is among the rich, and when you have slaved all your life and barely succeeded in feeding yourself, the final departure is considered a deliverance."  kiki also shared about her mother's cold indifference towards her.  she discussed how she would become embarassed when other kids called their mothers, "mama dear."  she explained that she "would have let all [her] pain and [her] desire to be able say 'mama', since i was never permitted to say papa . . ."  how sad to feel unloved as a child.  however though her childhood was tragic, her life improved because of art.  it wasn't all glamour but when it was it was, it was glam!

the interview was not all sad stories.  kiki shared stories that demonstrated her colorful and vivacious spirit.  one of my favorite stories was how she took lace samples from a catalog and pinned them to her coat so that they looked like a beautiful blouse which people would compliment!  i also delighted in her stories about peré libion, who supported artists by feeding them at his restaurant.  i loved how at the one opening he brought champagne explaining he had provided everything else he might as well provide that (the artist had stolen place settings from his restaurant.  lol)

it was an interesting read and nice to see kiki discuss herself in her own words.  since it was brief, it left me wanting to know more which i will hopefully discover in the graphic novel.

ps i have to add kiki shared how her mother told her "country bumpkin you are and country bumpkin you shall be." i am country bumpkin that loves the city but feel that regardless of how far away i may move away, i am still a little bit country!